Meet Bill

[ML Fan]

I'm opening a new thread for news pertaining to Jessica Alba's new film "Bill."
Alba, Banks fit the "Bill"
By Tatiana Siegel
Tue Jun 6, 11:42 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) Jessica Alba and Elizabeth Banks have joined Aaron Eckhart in the indie comedy "Bill." Eckhart plays the title character who, fed up with his job, his wife (Banks) and his life, finds himself the reluctant mentor of an unruly teenager. His life hits an all-time low when he catches his wife having an affair. But with the help of Lucy (Alba), an intriguing saleswoman, he regains his lost sense of self. Lindsay Lohan, who was attached to play the unruly teen, recently dropped out of the film.

Principal photography begins Thursday in and around St. Louis. The screenplay was written by Melisa Wallack, who also will co-direct the GreeneStreet Films project with her husband, Bernie Goldman.

Alba's credits include "Sin City" and "Fantastic Four." She stars in GreeneStreet's upcoming thriller "Awake," currently in postproduction.

Banks next will be seen in Walt Disney Pictures' "Invincible" opposite Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear and the CBS miniseries "Comanche Moon," the prequel to "Lonesome Dove." Her credits include "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Seabiscuit," "Slither" and the "Spider-Man" films.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Here's the link, news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060607/film_nm/bill_dc_1

There are new pictures of Jessica Alba on the set of her new movie "Bill" in Saint Louis from June 13, 2006 now posted on www.JMAZONE.de.

Here's the caption from the week's People Magazine.
StarTracks
SWEET & SOUR
Jessica Alba indulges in a sugar rush Wednesday on the St. Louis set of Bill. But the actress isn't so sweet in the movie: She plays Aaron Eckhart's cheating wife.

[Aerie]

Here are 3 of the 15 pics.


. .






Check out the others at Maestro's @ www.jmazone.de/

[ML Fan]

There are new pictures of Jessica Alba on the set of her new movie "Bill" in Saint Louis from June 17, 2006 now posted on www.JMAZONE.de.

[ML Fan]

There are new pictures of Jessica Alba on the set of her new movie "Bill" in Saint Louis from June 18, 2006 now posted on www.JMAZONE.de.

[ML Fan]

The movie poster for Jessica's movie "Bill" is now posted on Maestro's site. Here's the link, www.tv-community.de/bill-t2253.html

[dzero]

mlfan said:

The movie poster for Jessica's movie "Bill" is now posted on Maestro's site. Here's the link, www.tv-community.de/bill-t2253.html

Maestros site contains this link to the film production companies website. www.greenestreetfilms.com/f_production.html
They also have the poster for AWAKE.


Can't put up the poster , but they also have this pic of JA in the movie

[ML Fan]

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any new news about "Bill" but, I noticed that when Jessica was out promoting "Fantastic Four 2" that she seemed really enthusiastic about this movie in particular when she spoke briefly about her other projects.

[Aerie]

Photos from the Toronto premiere of "Bill" which took place September 8th or 9th.







clickies


and another one.

[dzero]

www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i9cab14b848f1aec0c4983951857c475e

"Bill"
TORONTO -- Just as the Toronto fest was reaching its close with few big-bucks buys, First Look Studios and GreeneStreet Films pacted on the heftiest sale of the event. First Look paid more than $3 million late Thursday for U.S. rights to GreeneStreet's comedy "Bill," starring Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba. A deal for Canadian rights is expected to close Friday evening.

Bernie Goldmann and Melisa Wallack's feature stars Eckhart as a disillusioned man who, after finding his wife (Elizabeth Banks) is cheating on him with a local news anchor (Timothy Olyphant), begins mentoring a rebellious teen (Logan Lerman). He starts getting his life back on track with the help of a lingerie salesgirl (Alba).

[dzero]

moviesblog.mtv.com/2007/09/27/310-teen-star-chases-after-jessica-alba-in-bill/



‘3:10’ Teen Star Chases After Jessica Alba In ‘Bill’
0 Comments | Published by Larry Carroll on Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 10:48 am.
Actor Logan Lerman has worked with Russell Crowe, Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Drew Barrymore and Christian Bale. He is currently garnering rave reviews in one of the most critically-acclaimed films of 2007. But he has a strange request to ask of his latest co-star, the beautiful Jessica Alba.

“Jessica?” he grinned recently. “Will you go to the prom with me, please?”

The 15-year-old rising star, last seen in “3:10 to Yuma,” has spent much of the past year working opposite the “Sin City” star in the upcoming comedy “Bill.” And while Lerman returns to the 10th grade this month, he admits that more than a few male classmates have expressed their jealousy.

“She’s one of the most beautiful people in Hollywood and everybody loves her,” the teen gushed. “It’s cool to talk to her and know that she’s really a down-to-earth person.”

“The movie is basically about this guy played by Aaron Eckhart, whose life is just falling apart - he’s losing his wife, he hates his job, and everything is going wrong,” Lerman said of the film, which premiered recently at the Toronto Film Festival. “He gets forced into signing up for a mentorship program at his old high school, and he ends up mentoring this kid played by me, who is just a free spirit, he doesn’t care about anything.”

[”My character] really lives his life to the fullest, is kinda badass, a pot-smoking kid,” he said. “[’Bill’] is about their relationship, as the kid changes this guy’s loser-life into something he can really enjoy. And Jessica Alba plays the girl that I’m always hitting on throughout the whole movie, who works at a lingerie store and helps me in helping him.”

Lingerie? Jessica Alba? Being cast as the guy who’s chasing after her? While Lerman fully admits that he was living out every boy’s pubescent pipe dream, he admitted with a shrug that he remains a realist.

“Everybody at school was like ‘Oh yeah, did you get her number?,’” he laughed. “I was like ‘Are you kidding me?’ I don’t have a chance in hell with Jessica Alba!”

[dzero]

www.stltoday.com ( direct link not working )

Movie filmed here hasn't got good buzz
POST-DISPATCH FILM CRITIC
11/24/2007

By Joe Williams

ST. LOUIS — In the summer of 2006, the state of Missouri rolled out the red carpet — and handed over almost half a million dollars in tax credits — for the production of "Bill," a midlife crisis comedy starring Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba. Last Sunday at the Tivoli Theater, that carpet was dusted off again for the local premiere of the movie, as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival.

But neither the producers nor the husband-and-wife co-directors were there to bask in the limelight.

That's not surprising.Advertisement
Two months earlier, the movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to negative reviews. Directors Melisa Wallack and Bernie Goldmann groused to the trade publication Hollywood Reporter that shooting the movie in St. Louis had been a mistake. They said the state of Missouri had offered the best tax incentives for the story, which was set in a nameless Midwestern city, but that the weather was too hot, rental-property owners were greedy and the local crew was inexperienced.

"The people we had worked really hard," said Goldmann at the time, "(but) people were learning on — I'd like to say learning on our dime, but it's more like on our pennies."

Yet even after the directors had publicly dissed St. Louis, many of the crew members and extras were dressed up for the sold-out screening at the Tivoli, where any hard feelings were put aside when the lights went down.

The audience cheered for recognizable landmarks such as the Galleria and the Mary Institute-Country Day School, and extras squealed when they saw themselves on the silver screen.

Afterward, the vibe in the lobby was festive. "I was very excited to see that my scene made it into the movie," said Johnny Kavanaugh, a local stand-up comedian who played an angry customer at a donut shop. "I was only on the set for one day, but it seemed to go without a hitch — except for the thunderstorm that took the Hollywood folks by surprise."

But a few locals with show-business aspirations, who feared that they might be blacklisted if they were quoted by name, said the directors themselves were to blame for the failure of the movie. Wallack was an experienced writer and Goldmann was an experienced movie producer, but neither had directed a film before. One actor characterized them as indecisive. Their infant daughter and pet collie added to their distractions on the set.

But the actor added that the rest of the crew made up for the deficiencies at the top of the command structure.

"I had a blast on the set," he said. "The folks I worked with, both from in and out of St. Louis, were very professional and generally a lot of fun. The assistant director had a voice like Lee Marvin, which seemed to help him command the cast and crew. Things I learned on the set have helped me with commercial projects and other films."

Such projects may soon increase in number. Gov. Matt Blunt has signed a bill from the state Legislature that will triple the amount of tax credits available for film production in Missouri, beginning Jan. 1.

And sometime next spring, the recut movie "Bill" is scheduled to return to local theaters under a new title, "Meet Bill."

[ML Fan]

Synopsis

MEET BILL (Aaron Eckhart) - a doormat if ever there was one. A man reduced to a mere accessory to his family by working a dead end job at his father-in law’s bank and arguing about his overindulgent love for chocolate with his wife Jess (Elizabeth Banks) who is loathe to explain her "friendship" with the local news anchorman (Timothy Olyphant). But Bill's fate begins to change when he becomes mentor to a self-assured boy (Logan Lerman) who engineers Bill’s recovery with the help of a cute lingerie sales girl named Lucy (Jessica Alba). Together, the trio confronts Bill’s hapless life with humor and energy while forcing him to capture his dream of being financially independent and self-confident. MEET BILL is a film about what it means to let go of your inhibitions and find the path you’re destined for.

Theatrical Release: April 04, 2008 (limited) / May 09, 2008 (wide)
MPAA Rating: R (language, some drug use and sex-related material)

There are a couple of screen caps of Jessica from "Meet Bill" posted as well as the trailer. Thanks to Maestro for the info. Here's the link, www.tv-community.de/meet-bill-comedy-mit-jessica-alba-t2253,start,25.html

[ML Fan]

St. Louis crews helped 'Meet Bill' filmmakers weather storms

The directors of the new movie "Meet Bill" want St. Louis to know: They couldn't have done it without you.

The comedy about a cuckolded bank executive (Aaron Eckhart), which opens locally Friday, was filmed in the St. Louis area in summer 2006.

Things did not go flawlessly.

The day before the cameras were set to roll, the production lost co-star Lindsay Lohan, who essentially declared that she was too big a star to work with first-time directors Bernie Goldmann and Melisa Wallack. Lohan was quickly replaced by Jessica Alba.

But then a storm knocked out power in much of the city. Even after power was restored, the vacant GenAmerica office building on Market Street, which was the setting for the fictional bank, had no air conditioning.

When the completed movie previewed last year at the Toronto International Film Festival under the title "Bill," some early responses were negative. Goldmann and Wallack, who are married, were quoted in the Hollywood Reporter saying that they had shot in St. Louis because of tax incentives but that the local crews were not experienced enough for a feature film.

Nonetheless, the film was picked up for distribution, although the backers asked for a new title and test audiences asked for a new ending.

Goldmann and Wallack now say that whatever obstacles they faced in St. Louis were not unexpected or extraordinary.

Wallack, who wrote the script, had never directed a film. Neither had Goldmann, the executive producer of such hits as "300" and "Fool's Gold." And along with the learning process, there were the distractions of having their infant daughter and their dog on the set.

"When you make your first movie for $5 million, there are always going to be compromises," Wallack said in a recent phone interview.

The first compromise was the casting snafu with Lohan,

"We don't want to slam Lindsay Lohan, who's been through a lot in the past couple of years, but it was a definitely a scramble to replace her," Wallack said. "We're lucky that Jessica Alba was available so quickly."

Other challenges presented themselves. The first day of shooting involved a scene at the Country Club of St. Albans. The location was available only for a short time. That meant that the novice directors would have to get acclimated on the trickiest shoot of the production, with every major cast member and more than a hundred extras in 105-degree weather.

"On some movies, you can solve problems by throwing money at them," Goldmann said. "That was not an option on this movie.

"So much of the decision about where to shoot a movie is financial, based on which state will give you the best deal. Then, secondarily, is the question of how good the crews are. The people we had on our crew, even though they hadn't worked on big movies before, they all gave so much of themselves and were so enthusiastic.

"Missouri is an underrated place that's just now putting its toe in the water in terms of film production. But if the state jumps in with bigger tax breaks, more production will come there, the local crews will get more experience and the business will keep perpetuating.

"And then you'll get more Hollywood people to spread the word about your toasted ravioli."

Info from www.stltoday.com

[Mr.Clark]

So yea i watched about half of this movie on the plane before i realised there were far to many people in there underwear to make this viewable in public without upsetting the 70 year old lady diagnoly behind me. I drew the line when the High school kid trys on womens lingerie. If the first half was anything to go by i wasn't missing much. Its just not a very good movie Jessica's role is also your typical hollywood eye candy. If i get a chance ill watch the second half but i won't be waiting with baited breath.

[dzero]

May 10, 2008 17:46:11 GMT -5 Mr.Clark said:

So yea i watched about half of this movie on the plane before i realised there were far to many people in there underwear to make this viewable in public without upsetting the 70 year old lady diagnoly behind me. I drew the line when the High school kid trys on womens lingerie. If the first half was anything to go by i wasn't missing much. Its just not a very good movie Jessica's role is also your typical hollywood eye candy. If i get a chance ill watch the second half but i won't be waiting with baited breath.

Has this been released on DVD? Or did you download it?